Jon Lash’s early works were academic in character and figure based. In the early 1980s, Lash began to explore his fascination with spatial relationships through a series of abstract fabricated, open reliefs, which he later closed in metal box-like frames in order to manipulate composition, space, and balance in the context of two and three dimensions. The surrounding frame and the smooth lines of the rods and geometric forms that penetrate, divide, and control the active, open plane allude to the flat surfaces of Constructivist painting as they defy the boundaries of the traditional relief.